IPART has reviewed the reporting requirements for safety management system performance measures. These were contained in IPART’s electricity networks reporting manuals for safety management systems, and for bushfire risk mitigation. It has published a final Reporting Manual which will apply from 1 October 2018.

Why

The Electricity Supply (Safety and Network Management) Regulation 2014 requires NSW electricity network operators to have a safety management system in place, measure the system’s performance and publish those measurements annually. IPART’s reporting manuals stipulate what those performance measurements are.

The first reporting measures were in place from October 2016. We have undertaken a comprehensive review and rethink of the performance measures to:

maximise the usefulness of the information collected by networks and reported to IPART and the public, and

ensure minimal regulatory costs to the network operators.

Who

Ausgrid, Endeavour Energy, Essential Energy and TransGrid are all required to comply with IPART’s Reporting Manual as a condition of their operating licences.

However, the Electricity Supply (Safety and Network Management) Regulation 2014 obligations apply to all electricity network operators with assets in NSW. The Reporting Manual also provides guidance to the other, non-licensed electricity network operators that are required to measure and report on the performance of their safety management systems.

How

We have undertaken extensive consultation with the network operators and the public. We published and received submissions to an Issues Paper and a Draft Reporting Manual. We revised our initial indicative timeline to allow for further consultation with the network operators. We have provided a summary of submissions received on our Issues Paper and Draft Reporting Manual, and IPART's response.

We have now considered all stakeholder feedback, and completed our analysis in finalising the Reporting Manual.

What Next

The Reporting Manual will apply from 1 October 2018, with the first report due to IPART on 30 October 2019. Licensed network operators are expected to report to IPART in accordance with the Reporting Manual.